Category Archives: Ontario

Featured Guest

Jennifer Campbell

Jennifer Campbell founded Heritage Memoirs in 2003 following 25 years as a writer and editor. During her career, she interviewed and wrote profiles of hundreds of people, but did not get any of her own family’s stories before her father died and her mother developed dementia. Recognizing the great and final loss when the histories are not written down, she joined other pioneers in the personal history field and built her company, one story at a time.

Heritage Memoirs and Jennifer Campbell have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Toronto Star, More and Elle magazines, CNN Money, Gannett newspapers (publishers of USA Today), Costco Connection, and Kiplinger’s Retirement Report, among others.

Best Advice Ever Received

One Action Genealogists Can Take Right Now

Read the book Start and Run a Personal History Business by Jennifer Campbell

Recommended Book

Bringing Your Family History to Life Through Social History by Katherine Scott Sturdevant

Productivity Tool

Computer, digital recorder Edirol R-09 (the current version of this is the Roland R-07), and Mac Family Tree software.

Advice

“If you’re an introvert learn how to do self promotion. You can do this by reading the book Quiet by Susan Cain.“

Action Item

For your action item this time around let’s focus on PR. This has two parts – you can choose to do one or both.

ACTION:

If you’re an introvert read the book that Jennifer mentioned Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain so that you can become more comfortable promoting yourself.

If you’re not an introvert then give some thought as to how you could possibly make use of some PR. Have you done something recently that would be newsworthy that you can send to a local newspaper? Maybe a project that you have been working on related to a local historical figure. Or maybe you’ve recently earned a credential. If nothing comes to mind then create a plan to do something that could become a newsworthy event.

Featured Guest

Lynn Palermo

Lynn Palermo is a genealogy professional with a passion for the written word. As the owner and author of a family history blog, you’ll find her most days blogging from her website The Armchair Genealogist. It’s here she offers readers practical advice on researching and writing their family history. The Armchair Genealogist was named one of the Top 40 Blogs by Family Tree Magazine.

Lynn is also the proud author of her family history book, The Waters of My Ancestors. Lynn has published three how-to-books designed to help the family historian write their own family history book, including Getting Ready to Write, Authentic Ancestors and Finding the Story.Her books can be found at The Family History Writing Studio where she coaches students through online courses, critiques, ebooks and webinars in their journey to use write creative nonfiction to write entertaining, engaging and inspiring stories. Every February, Lynn leads hundreds of family historians in The Family History Writing Challenge. For the past 5 years, she’s guided writers through 28 days of focused writing of their family history stories.

Lynn has been researching and writing genealogy for 15 years and loves to help others find their journey. Her perfect day is inspiring and motivating others to research and write their family history.

One Action Genealogists Can Take Right Now

Recommended Book

Productivity Tool

Advice

“Start writing now. You do not have to wait until your research is done.“

Action Item

For your action item this week I’d like you to do a brainstorming exercise. Think about your specific niche within genealogy. If you were to write a short eBook that you could publish as a pdf what topic would you choose?

ACTION:

Try to think of as many possibilities as you can. Allow yourself to go in a direction that you normally wouldn’t consider. Think about your niche in very broad terms and then narrow down and think about it with very specific topics. And then of course write down your ideas!

I hope this exercise really gets you thinking about what you do and the various ways you can share your knowledge on the subject. I really strongly believe in brainstorming. I think it can open you up to possibilities and ideas you hadn’t considered before.

NEWS

Here on the genealogy professional podcast we have been releasing episodes weekly for the last 5 or 6 weeks. I just want you to know that we are not going to continue at that pace. While we don’t have a set schedule yet what you are more likely to find is that we’ll post 6 episodes in a row and then we’ll take a few weeks off. Then we’ll do another 6 and take a few weeks off. That will be a bit easier on us than trying to crank them out every week. We’ve reached that point now. So our next episode will be in a few weeks on August 21st. On that day we’ll hear an amazing interview with NGSQ co-editor Melinde Lutz Byrne.

If you’d like to become a supporter of the Genealogy Professional podcast head over to the website at www.thegenealogyprofessional.com and click on the supporter button. And of course, ratings and reviews in both iTunes and Stitcher are always welcome.

Featured Guest

Christine Woodcock

Scottish born, Canadian raised, Christine Woodcock is a genealogy educator with an expertise in the Scottish records. She enjoys sharing new resources to assist others in their quest to find and document their heritage. Christine is also a lecturer, author and blogger who enjoys connecting with other genealogists through social media.

Christine is the Director of Genealogy Tours of Scotland and organizes 10 day research trips to Edinburgh where participants can research their genealogy onsite in Edinburgh.

Recommended Book

Productivity Tool

Advice

“If you have something that you are really passionate about then by all means turn that into a business but don’t expect to make too much money. You need to be realistic but Do It!”

Action Item

We have talked in the past about setting priorities and focusing on what is most important. This week we dive deeper into this idea by focusing specifically on email which can be overwhelming for all of us. Are you in control of your email or is it in control of you?

ACTION:

In the past we’ve asked you to prioritize your to-do list and create it the night before. There’s no point in that if you get derailed first thing in the morning by other people’s priorities in the form of an email. For the next 7 days try opening your email only 3 times a day. And more importantly, don’t open your email before 10am. Instead, focus on that number one priority which is on the top of your nightly to-do list!

Featured Guest

Lorine McGinnis Schulze

Lorine McGinnis Schulze is a Canadian genealogist who has been involved in the fields of genealogy and history for more than thirty years.

Lorine is the creator and owner of the Olive Tree Genealogy website and several other websites, all bringing free genealogical content online for genealogists and historians.

Lorine is active in the genealogy community with several blogs including the Olive Tree Genealogy blog and Ask Olive Tree. Here visitors can submit queries and challenging questions for an answer from Lorine. In February 2011 she was an official blogger for RootsTech Technology and Genealogy Convention in Salt Lake City Utah.

Olive Tree Genealogy has been online since February 1996 and is one of the oldest genealogy websites online. Lorine’s website was among the first to bring free primary sources to the Internet with its passenger lists of ships from the Netherlands to New York in the 17th Century. Lorine specializes in early Ships Passenger Lists to America and Canada, as well as New Netherland (17th Century New York), Loyalist research and Ontario genealogy research.

Lorine is active on her Olive Tree Genealogy YouTube channel which holds various Step-by-Step Tutorials and Cemetery Walk videos. She is also known for her commitment to locating descendants of American and Canadian soldiers whose medals and dog tags have been found in other countries.

She is a volunteer host for several Ontario GenWeb sites and USGenWeb sites. She also volunteers as an administrator for over 30 genealogy mailing lists and more than 2 dozen genealogy message boards.

Lorine’s current projects include a soon-to-be-published genealogical mystery novel and a book on genealogy activities and games for children.

Productivity Tool

Advice

“Don’t just talk about starting a business – at some point actually do it. Give yourself a deadline for a decision.”

Action Item

We pick up where with left off in episode 15. That week I asked you to decide on a several of your most fun projects and ask for permission to use the projects in learning opportunities for a broader audience such as an article or a presentation. This week our action item is to take that one step further by defining the project.

ACTION: Think about one of your fun projects and then fill in the information below. It doesn’t have to been perfect or locked in stone. The goal is to get you thinking about your project so that you can summarize it and turn it into another end product. Fill out this chart:

Are you a genealogy generalist who hasn’t found a specialty area or niche? A niche can help differentiate your business from other professionals but sometimes finding a niche can be a challenge. This webinar will take you through important criteria that will help you move forward in the best direction.

If you need help finding your niche and would like to be featured in the webinar, please send an email through the contact form and explain where you live, what you think you would specialize in and anything that is giving you trouble in making the decision. I look forward to hearing from you!

The webinar will include a Q&A session at the end. The webinar will not be available as a replay. However, it will be available for purchase afterward as a digital download.

Starting with her own family history research over 10 years ago, Kathryn has not only made genealogy her passion, she has also committed herself to helping others discover the joys of family history and how to locate their own ancestors.

Kathryn enjoys speaking both nationally and internationally at local, and provincial/state societies, and regional conferences. Her webinars featuring Canadian family history topics appeal to family historians from around the world.